Improvement in the manufacture of fur hats



UNITED. STATES PATENT OFFICE IRA GILL, OF WALPOLE, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FLlR HATS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 222,891, dated December 23, 1879; application filed November 22, 1879.

cone or former, instead of forming it by hand,

as heretofore practiced, all as hereinafter more fully set forth.

Heretofore, in the manufacture of this class of hats, it has been customary to form the body on ahat-formin g machine, and then reduce it to the requisite size by felting it or rolling it in a cloth with the application of hot water. The hair is then shaved from the body, which is then stiffened, usually by the use of shellac,

,after which the nap is applied to the body thus prepared. The method of preparing this nap, as hitherto universally practiced, was to take the proper amount of fur, and place it on a large bench or table, known to the trade as a hurld, and subject it to the operation known as bowing, which consists in hitting it repeatedly with a cord attached to what is known as a hatters bow, thereby working the mass of fur out into a thin fiat sheet, in which the fibers are more or less crossed and intermingled. This bowing was a slow and laborious process, a good workman being able to nap but about four hats per day, of

which the bowing took about one-third of the time and labor. The sheet thus prepared was then hardened by first pricking it down by means of a willow basket, used by hatters for that purpose, and then placing over it a sheet of leather, and giving to the latter a gentle movement to and fro, by which means it was sufficiently compacted to enable it to he handled with care. It was then cropped or reduced to the proper size and shape by picking from its edges, with the thumb and finger, such surplus and irregular parts as there might be. After this first nap, hat, or sheet had thus been formed, another was made in the same manner, except that instead of being composed of pure fur it had an admixture of a certain proportion of cotton fiber, for a purpose well understood by hatters. Having thus prepared these two napbats, the first one, or thatcomposed of fur alone, was then placed over the hat-body, previously prepared as above de-.

scribed, and sprinkled with hot water, and rolled in a woolen cloth kept hot by the application of hot water, which caused it to slightly adhere to the body. The second bat, com posed of fur and cotton, was then applied in a similar manner, and the whole was then kept saturated with hot water and rolled until the ends of the fibers of the fur were worked into the body, and thus made to adhere firmly thereto, after which the cotton contained in the outer layer, and which neither felts nor ing and hardening, as above described, I proceed as follows:

I first take the proper amount of raw fur, and, by means of the usual hat-forming machine, deposit it upon the perforated cone of the machine in a light thin layer, after which the cone with the hat on it is removed from the machine. I then split this bat while still dry and on the cone, by commencing at the bottom and carefully pulling it asunder with the hands and working upward to apex or top of the cone, thus forming it into a fiat sheet, when it can be removed from the cone dry. It is then cropped or reduced to the proper size, after which it is laid upon the body of the hat previously prepared. I then proceed in the same manner to form the second or outer bat, which, as in the hand process, is composed of an admixture of raw fur and c0tton, separate or split it, remove it from the cone, crop it, and apply it to the hat-body the same as with the previous bat. After this has been done the hat-body, with these bats applied to it, is treated in the usualmanner, which having been previously set forth need not be further described.

It will thus be seen that by my improvement I entirely dispense with the slow, laborious, and expensive process or method heretofore practiced of forming and preparing the napbats by hand, and by substitutin g therefor my method or process of forming them by machinery I immensely lessen thelabor required, and correspondingly cheapen and expedite their production.

It will, of course, be understood that it is not absolutely necessary to my improvement that the bats should be removed from the cone in a dry state, as it is obvious that they may be removed by means of a wet cloth, the same as the ordinary hat-bodies are; but I prefer the plan which I have described, as I consider it the best, all things considered. So, too, it

is obvious that instead of splitting or separating the hat by the hands in the manner described, it maybe cut by means of shears or separated in any other manner that will not tear or injure it; but inasmuch as the bat at this stage is composed of a thin fleeey mass of loose fibers, I find the above-described plan of splitting it to be the most simple and easy.

I am aware that ordinary hat-bodies for making felt hats have been formed on perforated cones by the use of hat-forming machines, a

patent for a machine for that purpose having been granted to me January 13, 1857, No.

16,426, and therefore I do not claim the formin g of hat-bodies on perforated cones or by means of a hat-forming machine; but I am not aware that the bats for forming the raised nap on hats has ever before been made in any other manner than by hand as herein set forth, and, therefore:

What I do claim is-,-

1. As an improvement in the art of manufacturing fur hats, the forming of the hat or bats which are to constitute the nap on said hats on a perforated cone, substantially as described.

2. A bat for producing the nap on a furhat, formed on a perforated cone and then split or separated to form a sheet, substantially as de scribed.

3. The herein-described method or process of forming the bats used to produce the nap on fur hatstl1at is to say, by first depositing the fibers of raw fur on the perforated cone of a hat-forming machine, then splitting or separating the same on one side and removing it from the cone, substantially as set forth.

IRA GILL.

Witnesses W. O. DODGE, P. T. DODGE. 

